Analyzing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9536720-B2
Application number	US-201113881915-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2011
Priority date	Oct 29, 2010
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

There is provided an analyzing apparatus including an irradiation unit irradiating a first point with a laser, a convergence unit causing an analysis target to converge at the first point, and a unit analyzing a sample gas including a substance that has been irradiated with the laser at the first point using an ion mobility sensor. One example of the convergence unit includes a unit causing the analysis target to be captured in a carrier substance in a liquid state; and a discharging unit discharging the carrier substance including the analysis target to the first point.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An analyzing apparatus comprising:
a convergence unit including a discharging unit that discharges to a first point droplets of a carrier substance in a liquid state including an analysis target and a source material that releases a first chemical substance when irradiated with a pulsed laser, the first chemical substance showing the source material is irradiated with the pulsed laser;
an irradiation unit irradiating the first point with the pulsed laser in synchronization with timing at which the discharging unit discharges the droplets; and
an analyzing unit analyzing a sample gas including a substance that has been irradiated with the pulsed laser at the first point, the analyzing unit using a sensor that outputs spectrum data;
wherein the first chemical substance is released and thus detectable by the sensor using at least one peak that does not coincide with peaks of the analysis target when the carrier substance is irradiated by the pulsed laser irrespective of the analysis target existing in the carrier substance;
wherein the analyzing unit includes a processor configured to:
detect whether a peak of the first chemical substance is included in the output spectrum data; and
when the analyzing unit detects the at least one peak of the first chemical substance is included in the output spectrum data, the analyzing unit determines the output spectrum data was caused by irradiation of the first chemical substance with the pulsed laser, and the analyzing unit identifies one or more peaks except for the at least one peak of the first chemical substance included in the spectrum data caused by irradiation of the analysis target with the pulsed laser.

2. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the convergence unit includes a unit causing the analysis target to be captured in a carrier substance, and
the discharging unit includes an ink jet head.

3. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 2 ,
wherein the irradiation unit controls energy supplied to the droplets discharged by the ink jet head so that the carrier substance vaporizes without vaporization or sublimation of the analysis target.

4. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the source material includes:
a first chemical substance; and
nanocapsules that encapsulate the marker chemical substance and release the first chemical substance when irradiated with a laser.

5. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is an ion mobility sensor.

6. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer.

7. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is a differential ion mobility spectrometer.

8. The analyzing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the analyzing unit uses a chemical substance database to identify the analysis target from the one or more peaks of the analysis target included in the output spectrum data.

9. An analyzing method comprising:
irradiating a first point with a pulsed laser in synchronization with timing at which a discharging unit discharges droplets of a carrier substance in a liquid state including an analysis target and a source material that releases a first chemical substance when irradiated with the pulsed laser, the first chemical substance showing the source material is irradiated with the pulsed laser; and
analyzing a sample gas including a substance that has been irradiated with the laser at the first point using a sensor that outputs spectrum data,
wherein the first chemical substance is released and thus detectable by the sensor using at least one peak that does not coincide with peaks of the analysis target when the carrier substance is irradiated by the pulsed laser irrespective of the analysis target existing in the carrier substance;
wherein the analyzing the sample gas includes distinguishing between a background spectrum and a spectrum data that includes spectrum of the analysis target produced when the droplets are irradiated with the pulsed laser according to whether a peak of the first chemical substance is included in spectrum data together with the spectrum of the analysis target.

10. The analyzing method according to claim 9 ,
wherein the analyzing unit is further configured to determine that a chemical substance detected together with the first chemical substance from the spectrum of the analysis target included in the spectrum data with a peak of the first chemical substance is a chemical substance derived from the analysis target,
wherein the irradiating the first point with the pulsed laser includes controlling the energy supplied to the droplets discharged by an ink jet head included in the discharging unit so that derived substances are generated without vaporization or sublimation of the analysis target.

11. The analyzing method according to claim 9 , wherein the analyzing includes detecting whether a peak of the marker chemical substance is included in the output spectrum data; and when the analyzing unit detects a peak of the marker chemical substance is included in the output spectrum data, the analyzing unit identifies one or more peaks of the analysis target included in the output spectrum data.

12. The analyzing method according to claim 9 , wherein the sensor is a field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer.

Assignees

• Sato Tomoyoshi
• Imai Akira
• Atonarp Inc

Inventors

• Sato Tomoyoshi
• Imai Akira

Classifications

• G01N2001/028

  Sampling from a surface, swabbing, vaporising · CPC title

• A61B5/4869

  Determining body composition · CPC title

• G01N33/497

  of gaseous biological material, e.g. breath · CPC title

• A61B10/0051

  for taking saliva or sputum samples (devices for receiving spittle A61J9/00) · CPC title

• A61B10/02

  Instruments for taking cell samples or for biopsy {(A61B10/0038 and A61B10/0045 take precedence; needle locating or guiding means A61B17/3403; samplers for enzymology or microbiology C12M1/26; sampling or preparing biological specimens G01N33/48)} · CPC title